Social Security announces 1.6 percent benefit increase for 2020

In this Oct. 9, 2019 photo, Joe Schiavone, 81, stands in his workshop in West Melbourne, Fla. Schiavone will get a modest cost-of-living increase from Social Security for 2020,a political year in which many Democrats are calling for a boost in basic benefits and a more generous formula to compute annual inflation adjustments. (AP Photo/Mike Brown)

Social Security
and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for nearly 69 million Americans
will increase 1.6 percent in 2020, the Social Security Administration announced
today.

The 1.6 percent
cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits payable to more than
63 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2020. Increased
payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 31,
2019. (Note: some people receive both Social Security and SSI benefits).
The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer
Price Index as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor
Statistics.

Some other
adjustments that take effect in January of each year are based on the increase
in average wages. Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings
subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $137,700
from $132,900.

Social Security
and SSI beneficiaries are normally notified by mail in early December about
their new benefit amount. Most people who receive Social Security
payments will be able to view their COLA notice online through their my Social Security
account. People may create or access their my
Social Security account online at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount.

Information about
Medicare changes for 2020, when announced, will be available at www.medicare.gov.
For Social Security beneficiaries receiving Medicare, Social Security will not
be able to compute their new benefit amount until after the Medicare premium
amounts for 2020 are announced. Final 2020 benefit amounts will be
communicated to beneficiaries in December through the mailed COLA notice and my Social
Security’s Message Center.